Los Angeles Times - 25.08.2019

C6 SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2019 WST S LATIMES.COM/BUSINESS

“Putting thousands of dol-
lars on the table only com-
pounds the problem,” he
said in his veto message,
concluding pointedly: “Not
everything in life is for sale,
nor should it be.”
The proposal resurfaced
in 2016 under Burke’s spon-
sorship but died when
Brown signaled that he
hadn’t changed his mind.
Now, with a new governor in
Sacramento, the propo-
nents are trying again.
Burke’s bill, Assembly Bill
922, passed the Assembly
without a single “no” vote in
May and the Senate Health
Committee on June 20, by a
6-1 vote, so it’s likely to pass
the Senate handily. Gov.
Gavin Newsom thus may be
the only person standing in
the way of it becoming law.
Newsom’s spokesman,
Nathan Click, says the
governor doesn’t weigh bills
until they reach his desk.
This one would put Cali-
fornia women, especially
low-income women who
may be especially desperate
for the compensation, at
risk. He should kill it.
Let’s examine why.
Although proponents of
the bill defend it with the
gender equity argument, in
reality it’s about supply and
demand: Researchers have
trouble obtaining human
eggs if they can’t pay for
them. The market is grow-
ing fast because eggs are
used today not merely for
research on infertility but in
stem cell and genetic engi-
neering laboratories and
firms.
At stake is not the fertil-
ity industry, where women
are routinely paid for strik-
ing private and legal deals.
In question is the growing
demand for egg donations
that are “taking place in the
biotechnology market, and
it’s largely profit-driven,”
says Lisa Ikemoto, a bio-
ethicist at UC Davis. “The
types of protections we have

for human subjects haven’t

taken that into account.

People who are not doing

things like having drugs

tested on them, but are

providing cells and tissues,

are not the kind of human

subjects the laws were de-

signed to protect.” As de-

mand continues to grow, she

says, those participants’

“financial need may over-

come their sense of self-

protection.”

As was the case in 2016,

scant research exists on the

long-term health risks of egg

retrieval. Nothing in the bill

would encourage more.

There’s no funding, for

instance, for a research

program, or even to create a

database of egg donors so

their health can be tracked

over time.

What is known, however,

is that egg donors have been

advised consistently that

the medical risks of the

procedure are low — they’re

told that only 1% experience

ovarian hyperstimulation

syndrome, or OHSS, a

condition that can befall

women who take fertility

medication to stimulate egg

growth, as egg donors must

do.

Diane Tober, who re-

searches egg donors at UC

San Francisco, said that

figure may severely under-

state the prevalence of

OHSS. She says studies

suggest that 3% to 6% of

donors may experience

severe OHSS at some point.

“The research still needs to

be done,” she says. “We still

don’t have a lot of informa-

tion on the impact on wom-

en’s health of egg donation

either immediately or in the

long term. But I’m seeing a

much higher risk of compli-

cations than what’s re-

ported in the literature.”

In other words, assur-

ances that the procedure is

safe are based on a lack of

knowledge. The procedure

is not simple. Consider the

experience of Katie O’Reilly,

an Oakland magazine ed-

itor who underwent the

procedure in 2009, at the age

of 25, because she was broke

and needed the $8,000 fee

paid by a fertility clinic on

behalf of a couple trying to

have a child. “If I’d known

then what I know now,” she

wrote in a 2015 article for

BuzzFeed, “I wouldn’t have

done it.”

The routine for O’Reilly,

which is standard, required

her to self-inject hormones

twice a day for up to two

weeks to stimulate egg

production, along with

another hormone to stave

off ovulation until her eggs

could be harvested. Then

her eggs were harvested by

needle under general anes-

thesia. “They said there

were virtually no risks,” she

told me.

After the procedure,

O’Reilly experienced multi-

ple medical problems —

endometriosis, fibroid

breast tumors requiring

biopsies, painful menstrual

cycles. She’d been healthy

before, but her doctors are

loath to connect her subse-

quent conditions to her egg

donation. “They just say

there’s no way of knowing,”

she says. Nor did the fertility

agency that recruited her

show much concern, though

it had been extremely solici-

tous prior to the harvesting.

“It was about making sure

they got the goods, and after

that point, you’re sort of

dispensable.”

The sponsor of AB 922,

the American Society for

Reproductive Medicine,

glosses over that aspect of

the matter. The ASRM’s

pitch to legislators bristles

with irrelevancies and mis-

leading claims. A letter the

association sent May 30 to

Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacra-

mento), chairman of the

Senate Health Committee,

asserts that women are

“capable of informed deci-

sion making as to the risks

of compensated participa-

tion in research,” as if the

ban on payment is just

another form of paternal-

istic condescension.

The letter says that

“fairness” requires that

women be compensated

just like men providing

sperm for research. It says

that the ban on compensa-

tion embodied in Pro-

position 71, which created

the California stem cell

program, was based on

“claims that ovarian stimu-

lation is carcinogenic,” and

compared those claims to

assertions that abortion

causes breast cancer or

vaccines cause autism.

Those comparisons to

definitively debunked

claims about cancer and

abortion and vaccines and

autism are unworthy of any

self-respecting research

organization. There are

many open questions about

the short-, medium- and

long-term health conse-

quences of egg harvesting,

including the effect on a

donor’s reproductive sys-

tem and fertility. Although

some studies have been

reassuring about the carcin-

ogenic effects of the pre-

donation hormonal treat-

ments, the issue is by no

means closed, as a 2014

scientific survey reported.

Nor can the egg donation

procedure be compared

with the process of harvest-

ing sperm. At the risk of

seeming indelicate, it

should be obvious that

unlike egg donors, under

normal circumstances,

sperm donors don’t have to

undergo an invasive surgical

procedure or self-adminis-

ter daily injections of hor-

mones.

The ASRM and Burke

both treat egg donations for

research and donations to

help couples achieve fertility

as essentially the same.

They’re wrong. California

doesn’t regulate payments

to donors for fertility treat-

ments, including those of

strangers, because they

tend to be private contracts.

But it does subject research

on human subjects to strict

standards requiring in-

formed consent from the

participants and discourag-

ing blandishments that

could lead people to agree to

procedures that are not in

their best interest.

“The process of asking

people to provide any kinds

of cells and tissues for pay-

ments depends on income

inequality,” Ikemoto says.

“In the egg market, it de-

pends on race inequality as

well — most people who are

screened for eggs in the

fertility market are white

because that’s where the

demand is. In the research

setting, that may be differ-

ent. That’s a serious con-

cern.”

ASRM and Burke make

much of the fact that Cali-

fornia is one of only three

states that ban payments to

those who donate eggs for

research (Massachusetts

and South Dakota are the

others). But the National

Academy of Sciences op-

poses payments for egg

donors beyond direct ex-

penses in stem cell research,

so that financial incentives

won’t interfere with donors’

voluntary consent. (The

NAS opposes payments for

sperm donors too.)

Financial incentives

appear to be the key to

attracting donors, which

should give pause to sup-

porters of the legislation.

“It’s clear that money is the

primary incentive,” says

Emily Galpern, a consultant

for the Berkeley-based

Center for Genetics and

Society, which opposes the

bill. “When anyone tries to

recruit donors without

payment, women won’t do

it.”

Burke told me that she

has undergone egg harvest-

ing four times for her own

fertility treatments without

problems. “You’re telling me

that I don’t have the deci-

sion-making ability as a

grown woman to make this

decision for myself?” she

says. “I don’t buy it.”

Yet one of the impera-

tives of government, includ-

ing the government of which

Burke is a member, is to

protect people from being

enticed into making deci-

sions without enough infor-

mation to protect them-

selves. How can any woman

give informed consent to a

procedure in which there’s

so little information about

the consequences?

Burke told me, “there’s

very little data to show that

this process has any detri-

mental effects.” But that

won’t do. Burke’s personal

experience is hardly the last

word, and in fact there are

enough reports of possible

detrimental effects to gener-

ate professional calls for

more studies. The reason we

don’t have more data is that

not enough research has

been done.

Burke could do egg

donors a solid service by

rewriting her bill to man-

date and fund studies of the

effect of the hormones that

must be taken by donors.

The research community

has been widely criticized

for gender bias — both for

inadequate funding on and

inadequate attention to

medical issues affecting

women; this would be an

opportunity to help redress

the imbalance, at least in

this one field.

Burke also should insert

real medical safeguards for

donors. Burke’s bill requires

that research sponsors

provide donors with “cov-

erage for medically appro-

priate medical care that is

required as a direct result of

the procedure.” But the bill

doesn’t define what care

would be “medically appro-

priate” or “a direct result of

the procedure,” or say how

long the coverage should

last. Burke told me she’s

content to leave that to the

judgment of the institu-

tional review board, or IRB,

overseeing the research.

But that’s cold comfort

for donors. IRBs at cred-

itable research institutions

may act responsibly, but it’s

not uncommon for fly-by-

night IRBs to offer their

services for hire or even for

researchers to set up them-

selves as an IRB.

Even at big universities,

research funds are scarce,

so they may have an incen-

tive to keep their healthcare

commitments to egg donors

narrow to save money.

What’s to keep them from

saying: “Your endometri-

osis? Not our problem.”

Specific coverage require-

ments should be part of this

measure.

The truth is that the egg

donor market is an unregu-

lated Wild West, and it’s only

going to get wilder if limits

on payment to donors are

eliminated. Asked what

advice she would give pro-

spective egg donors, O’R-

eilly says: “I would tell them

to look into all the anecdotal

evidence they can find, and

not take at face value what-

ever they’re being told.”

Keep up to date with

Michael Hiltzik. Follow

@hiltzikm on Twitter, see

his Facebook page, or email

michael.hiltzik

@latimes.com.

Weighing risks,

fairness of paid

egg donations

THERE AREmany open questions about the short-, medium- and long-term health consequences of egg

harvesting, including the effect on a donor’s reproductive system and fertility. Above, a Toronto fertility clinic.

Keith BeatyToronto Star

A WOMAN’Segg is fertilized in 1988. In California, it’s illegal for researchers to

compensate women for their eggs beyond reimbursements for direct expenses.

Yvonne HemseyGetty Images

[Hiltzik,from C1]

Search jobs. Post your resume.

Stand out from the crowd.

latimes.com/jobs

YOUR PERFECT

JOB

IS WAITING

Sr. Software Development

Analyst (Mercury Insurance

Services, LLC, (dba Mercury

Insurance Group; Cerritos,

CA). Resrch & fact-find to

devl’p or modify info syst &

syst intgrtns. Prep detailed

specs or desgn. from which

progs will be written. Ap-

ply: http://www.mercuryinsurance.

com.

Software Engineer-PHP API

Web Services sought by Age

of Learning Inc. Req’d: Mas-

ter’s or equiv. in Comp. Sci.

or related and 24 mos’ exp.

working with and develop-

ing web services; writing

object-oriented PHP outside

of a framework; and archi-

tecting scalable web apps;

or a Bachelor’s or equiv. in

Comp. Sci. or related plus 5

yrs’ progressively responsi-

ble exp. in the above-stated

occupations. Also required:

MYSQL; Docker; PHPUnit;

and Postman/Swagger;

supporting/integrating

payment gateways (E.g.,

Chase Paymentech/iTunes);

instrumenting analytics for

high traffic web apps; and

Ubuntu/Alpine. Position is

based out of 101 N. Brand

Blvd, 8th Fl, Glendale, CA

91203. Qualified applicants
       please submit resume to Sr.
       Counsel, Age of Learning
       Inc., 101 N. Brand Blvd, 8th
       Fl, Glendale, CA 91203.

Software Developer devel-

oping PBX software for in-

ternet marketing co. Mail to

Golden Entropy Marketing,

Inc., 17547 Ventura Blvd.,

#200, Encino, CA 91316.

SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGI-

NEER, iOS sought by Head-

space, Inc. in Santa Monica,

CA to design and build ad-

vanced applications for the

iOS platform. Resume to: HR,

Headspace, Inc., 2415 Michi-

gan Avenue, Santa Monica,

CA 90404.

JOBS

latimes.com/placead

To place an ad call 1.800.234.4444

MARKETPLACE

Software Quality Assurance

Engineer for I/O Controls

Corp, Master Degree in Com-

puter Science or Systems

Engineering. Rsm to H.R. at

1357 W Foothill Blvd, Azusa,

CA 91702.

Software Engineer-PHP

sought by Age of Learn-

ing, Inc. Req’d: Bachelor’s or

equiv. in Comp. Sci. or re-

lated field and 36 mos’ exp.

in writing efficient database

queries by hand; object-

oriented PHP without us-

ing a framework; BASH

and Windows systems; and

asynchronous processing.

Position is based out of 101

N. Brand Blvd., 8th Floor,

Glendale, CA 91203. Quali-

fied applicants please sub-

mit resume to Sr. Counsel,

Age of Learning Inc., 101 N.

Brand Blvd, 8th Fl, Glendale,

CA 91203.

Software Development En-

gineer in Test - II (Torrance,

CA; and client sites) Develop

and maintain automation

testing across UI, Services/

API and mobile. Automate

test data management and

execute tests. Bachelor’s De-

gree or equivalent in Com-

puter Science or closely re-

lated field required. 3 years

of relevant work experience

required. Must be proficient

in Java, JavaScript, Python,

Selenium, SoapUI, Jenkins,

and SQL Server. Mail resume

to Numentica LLC, 3868 W

Carson St Suite 300, Tor-

rance, CA, 90503.

EG-SR Software Engineer II

needed by AT&T Services,

Inc. in El Segundo, CA to

Develop and implement Big

Data and NoSQL deploy-

ments. Apply at http://att.

jobs/, select JOB SEARCH

& APPLY & select Search

by Requisition Number

at the left bottom of the

page & enter JOB NUMBER:

1941253.

Employment

Information Technology

Assistant IT Director: Resp.

for managing IT issues,

prod., & services at the Wal-

dorf Astoria Beverly Hills

hotel. Provide user training

& supp. for all prop./site sys.,

network enhancements,

hardware, & software supp.

Maintain inventory of all

hardwire prod. & software

licenses, & review mainte-

nance agreements. Super-

vise, supp., & train Tech. Ser-

vices Specialists staff. Must

have exp. in sys./project

mgmt., LAN/WAN environ.

& arch., TCP/IP, sys. integra-

tion, MS/IBM Dos, Novell

NetWare 5.x, Internet Access

(VPN Supp.), OnQ, Micros

POS, ECS Call accounting

Winsuite/Winvoice, Citrix

Winframe, HPMS II/HTTS, &

Adobe. Job in Beverly Hills,

CA. Please mail cvr. ltr. & re-

sume to N. Leier, Director of

HR, Hilton Domestic Op. Co.,

9850 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly

Hills, CA, 90210.

TECHNICAL

Adobe, Inc. is accepting

resumes for the following

positions in LOS ANGELES,

CA: Software Development

Engineer (Ref #LASDE241):

Articulate the architectural

vision to clients, sponsors

and stakeholders. Validate

clients roadmap against cur-

rent or expected features.

Software Development En-

gineer (Ref #LASDE101): Pro-

duce clear, well-structured,

cross-browser, testable, scal-

able, critical bugs free code.

Mail resume to Adobe, Inc.,

Mailstop W8-435, 345 Park

Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110.

Must include Ref. code. No

phone calls please. EOE.

http://www.adobe.com/

Software Developer. Bach-

elor’s in Comp. Sci, Comp.,

Engrng, or related. Mail Re-

sume to: Intellect, Attn HR,

6100 Center Dr. Ste.1150, LA,

CA 90045.

Senior Software Engineer

(position in Los Angeles, CA

90028):

Develop and test web-based

music software applications

for sound design and music

production using SQL, Ja-

vascript, Python, and PHP 7.

Define, implement, and test

APIs and infrastructure sup-

porting Native Instruments

music production and DJing

applications. Implement

internal and external facing

web-based tools to manage

and monitor data regard-

ing inventory, users, and

partners. Conduct manual

testing and maintain test au-

tomation scripts and tools.

Must have Bachelor’s de-

gree in Information Tech-

nology (or foreign degree

equivalent) and five years

of experience in technical

project management / R&D,

deployment, installation,

and activation of desktop

and mobile products for

computer-based audio pro-

duction technology.

Please submit in duplicate

your resume and cover let-

ter referencing position

#0501 to: Native Instru-

ments North America, Inc.,

Attn. Joe Halzack, Director of

People and General Manag-

er, 6725 Sunset Blvd., Suite

500, Los Angeles, CA 90028.

Native Instruments North

America, Inc. is an Equal Op-

portunity Employer.

Employment

From

brokers

to buyers.

In one

place.

LATimes

Real Estate

Classified

AdvertiseToday

(800) 234-4444

Web Designer (Torrance, CA)

Design, create and edit web-

sites. Bachelor’s in multime-

dia/design related. Resume

to: Credit Card Services Inc.

21281 S Western Ave, Tor-

rance, CA 90501

Interested candidates send

resume to: Google LLC, PO

Box 26184 San Francisco,

CA 94126 Attn: V. Murphy.

Please reference job # be-

low:

Strategic Partner Special-

ist (Venice, CA) Direct

Google’s business initia-

tives & relationships w/ its

media technology partners.

#1615.28373 Exp Incl: ana-

lytical modeling or social

media platform analytics; cli-

ent or partner mgmt; digital

platform strategy; creative

strategy or digital content

strategy; corporate presen-

tation building; contract

negotiation; & forecasting &

budgeting.

TECHNICIAN

Advanex Americas, Inc.

seeks Technician in Rancho

Dominguez, CA to: Contrib-

ute to product development

by gathering information on

customer needs and tech-

nical specifications. Send

resumes to: Joanna Holen-

beck, 19920 S. Alameda St.

Rancho Dominguez, CA

90221. Ref job# AARD01.
       EOE.

Employment